Regardless of the type of drum, the heads must be properly tensioned (or tuned) prior to playing. Traditional head tensioning systems involve a system of threaded lugs and brackets. The brackets, with interior female threading, are bolted into the exterior of the shell of the drum. The lugs, with exterior male threading, are inserted through holes in a tensioning hoop that is secured over the rim of the drumhead. The lugs are then individually screwed into the brackets on the shell. When the drum is tuned, each lug is individually tightened, and the drumhead tuned overall by means of tapping on the head near each lug individually and gradually bringing the entire head up to the desired tension and its associated tone. Since tightening of any lug affects overall tension, this process must be repeated a number of times to bring the head to final tension. If the drum has a head on each end, this entire process is repeated for both heads. This approach has several downsides: attachment of the brackets to the drum shell requires penetrating the shell with a large number of holes, which may adversely affect sound, and which adds significantly to the cost of manufacture. More importantly, the drum cannot readily be tuned during performance, since the tap-and-tighten approach to tuning is time-consuming and requires a reasonably quiet environment, which may well not be the case in a music venue. In the case of the bottom head, it would also require removing the drum from its stand and flipping it over to repeat the process; all of which is impractical during a time-constrained performance, and annoying otherwise.
Prior attempts to develop a quick tuning method for drums are impractical for several reasons: they involve very complex mechanisms with a great many moving parts which are sensitive to mis-adjustment, and therefore inadequately robust for the needs of performing percussionists; they require drums that are purpose-built to take the specific tuning mechanism in question, and are therefore useless to the percussionist using a standard drum kit; and they are applicable only to single headed drums, and are therefore again relatively useless to a drummer using a standard trap set, which normally incorporates only double-headed drums.
The present invention avoids all of these downsides. Rather than using a complex system of hardware parts and cabling which can only be applied to the purpose-built drum, this invention tensions both heads on the drum simultaneously using a single run of cable which is threaded through pulleys (or in a less expensive variation, guides or grommets) in a laced pattern between the 2 heads. A tensioning mechanism or similar device is used to adjust the tension on the cable, which is then transmitted to all attachment points for the pulleys on both heads simultaneously. This permits rapid re-tuning of a drum during a performance. The utility is enhanced by including a tension gauge in the cable-tensioner assembly, which facilitates accurate tuning so a specific desired pitch by bringing the cable to a pre-determined tension. Since drumhead pitch is a function of cable and head tension, the system allows accurate re-tuning even as the cable and head age and stretch, and even in noisy venues where re-tuning by listening to pitch may be impracticable or where atmospheric variations make frequent re-tuning necessary.
The only hardware items needed for this invention are modified tensioning hoops, or attachments to standard hoops, to accommodate the pulleys or cable guides, and the cable-tensioner assembly itself. This means that in addition to being used on new drums, it can be retrofitted to an existing drum shell with little or no modification of the shell itself.
The present invention is readily distinguishable from prior drumhead tensioning systems in general. Unlike a lug-and-bracket system, the current invention may or may not use brackets and uses no lugs at all. This also eliminates the need for a drum key or any other hand tool to tune the drum. The entire set of hardware associated with those and similar systems is avoided entirely, with only a single potential attachment point of the system to the drum shell, that of the tensioning mechanism. See U.S. Pat. No. 674,550 (screws and lugs), U.S. Pat. No. 973,661 (clips), U.S. Pat. No. 1,722,032 (hoops and turnbuckles), U.S. Pat. No. 8,912,416 (lugs), U.S. Pat. No. 7,138,574 (bolts), U.S. Pat. No. 5,561,255 (lugs).
It is also readily distinguishable from prior cable-based systems, which involve multiple cables and associated complex tensioning systems, and which require specialized, purpose-specific drums for their utilization. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,488,882, the system involves multiple cables attached to a complex sliding ring assembly that rotates around the circumference of the drum shell. The cables are attached individually to the tensioning hoop on one end and the ring assembly on the other, passing over stop posts between the ends. As the ring rotates the cables are stretched around the stop posts, increasing tension on the cables. This system requires multiple cables around the circumference of the drumhead, each individually attached to the rotating ring. Since overall tension of the drumhead is a function of the combined tensions of all cables, the system is very sensitive to the individual cables tensions, and thereby to any cable stretching or other misalignment of those tensions. And, the entire system is designed for use in a single, purpose-specific drum which is itself part of the patent.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,244,265 the system is again based upon multiple cables, but instead of the peg and rotating ring assembly of the above patent, it relies upon a tensioning lever at the bottom of the drum. Because it also uses multiple cables, the system is susceptible to all of the defects and weaknesses cited above, and is again designed to be used on a single, purpose-specific drum, which is itself part of the patent.
In both cases, the system is limited to single headed drums and cannot be adapted to double-headed drums. Nor can either system be used on a standard drum shell such as that from a trap set snare drum or tom-tom.